Bulgaria, Land Of Surprises

The Former Communist State, Rich In History And Culture, Is A Rewarding Spot For Bargain-minded Travelers In Southeastern Europe.

August 22, 1993|By Mike Shoup, Philadelphia Inquirer

VARNA, BULGARIA — I'm having dinner at a pleasant little outdoor cafe named Gibraltar, along a street that ends 100 yards away at the Black Sea. It's a broad boulevard named, until relatively recently, for the founder of Bulgaria's Communist Party, Georgi Dimitrov.

Then tarator, a cold, refreshing soup made from cucumbers and yogurt and flavored with herbs and spices.

That's followed by two skewers of pork kebabs surrounded by french fries, beans and a kind of cabbage slaw. It's not great, but it's good, solid food - more than I can eat.

What is great is the price: 66 leva, the equivalent of $2.53. The addition of a 20 percent tip brings my bill to $3.

Welcome to Bulgaria, where travelers willing to accept second-class hotel accommodations or to share a bath in a private house will find they need budget no more than $20 to $30 a day for food and lodging for two - even in Sofia, the capital city.

In Bulgaria the mountains rise close to 10,000 feet, and the foothills and valleys are covered with vineyards, orchards and small farms. Combine the country's rich historic and cultural treasures with its stunningly beautiful peaks and valleys, and the travel, while not as comfortable as in Western Europe, is as rewarding in many aspects - at a small fraction of the cost.

It's reminiscent, especially in price and amenities, of traveling in Germany or France 30 years ago or visiting the former nations of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. In fact, Bulgaria may be the only country on the continent that still has both low prices and a network of adequate hotels (sometimes barely, but adequate nevertheless). That is true especially here along the 200 miles of Black Sea coast, where Soviet party bosses used to play, and British and German tourists have come for a generation.

''I think you have to experience it now,'' said Lillemore Danielsson, of Malmo, Sweden, who was vacationing with her husband, Roland, in the nearby Black Sea resort of Albena. ''This can't last much longer.''

The low cost of travel is just one of the surprises. A year into a privatized economy, Varna and other Bulgarian cities have blossomed with colorful sidewalk cafes and coffee bars and small businesses, ranging from clothing stores to streetside stands selling cigarettes, or vodka and grape or plum brandy, or nuts, ice cream - even bananas. (Bananas are quite a treat; for years under communist rule, they were not available except, perhaps, on holidays.)

The streets - particularly the many pedestrian promenades - teem with young people in fashionable dress. Forget the babushka image of women wearing ankle- length dresses with black scarves tied under the chin or of grizzled farmers riding donkeys. It's much more likely to be miniskirts or cutoff jeans for women - worn very short. Young men wear baggy, neon-bright shorts and T-shirts with ''Houston'' or ''Arizona'' or ''Hawaii'' printed on the front.

One more surprise is the affection for Americans. Here in Varna, when I stopped the rental car and asked directions to my hotel, a middle-aged man with a book under his arm just hopped in and guided me there - a mile off his route. Others seemed friendly and eager to try out their English, once they knew they were talking to an American.

Just like other nations of the former Soviet bloc trying to go to a free-market economy, Bulgaria has its problems. Inflation is running at 70 percent, unemployment above 15 percent. Engineers and doctors are driving cabs or selling tourist trinkets. And in sharp contrast to the ongoing westernization of the cities, those still tilling the soil or returning to the land under privatization are farming much the way they have for generations - with hoes, scythes and horse-drawn plows and cultivators. (Here, the babushkas and farmers on donkeys still are very real.)

But for the average visitor to this tiny nation - about the size of Pennsylvania but with a population of 3 million fewer people - there is an unexpected yet inescapable vibrancy. Bulgarians may share the Cyrillic alphabet and a similar language with the Russians, along with a communist past, but there the comparisons end. The sense a traveler gets is much more Adriatic or Aegean, and resembles what the geography suggests - somewhere between the Serbs and the Greeks and Turks. (Turkish influences are strongly evident - in the music, food and language - because of 500 years of domination by the Ottoman Empire.)

Varna is Bulgaria's third-largest city, with a population of more than 300,000. While other, smaller towns along the coast have allure - Nesebar and Sozopol, in particular - Varna is surely its most attractive. It's also the best base for exploration and a major tourist attraction itself.